Welcome to the second of our Voice-Care Partner interviews!
The Voice-Care Partner Ecosystem comprises of leading companies within their respective fields, whose market-leading and progressive technologies enable the creation of ground-breaking Voice-Care solutions, designed to transform and enhance patient safety and care throughout any hospital or clinical environment.
For this interview we spoke with Sam Furr, Co-Founder and CEO at Tappable, to find out his thoughts on all things Voice-Care.
1. How long have you been in your current role at Tappable?
I co-founded the agency 13 years ago, and I am still here. Whilst my role has evolved over that time from startup to established agency, I’ve never left or considered it.
2. Can you tell us more about the nature of Tappable’s business?
The official label would be ‘bespoke software agency’, but I’m not fond of that as a statement as we’re so much more just a dev shop; although we can build just about anything.
The business has evolved a lot over the last decade. From a startup-focused agency mostly working on mass consumer-facing apps and games, we now work for some large corporations in highly regulated sectors (such as life sciences and healthcare, as well as fire safety and compliance).
The output of our work nowadays with clients is typically a mobile app or a piece of web software (web app), but the process to get to that point is what makes it interesting. We take a real interest in our clients and their goals, then perform deep analysis into any solution before we build. We’ve a tonne of product strategy, commercial experience, monetisation and transformational knowledge that everyone has access to when they work with us.
What we build has to pass the stress test of user acceptance before we write a single line of code or design a screen.
As we mature as a business, we also are starting to launch our own initiatives, SaaS products and startups.
3. What does your role within Tappable involve?
I have less direct involvement with the day-to-day development work anymore. Instead, I focus my time on making sure what we’re building is the right thing for clients, not how we’re building it. I have far better people than me to take on that responsibility.
I am also responsible for bringing in new clients and ensuring we have a happy and healthy team and partner network. The rest just seems to fall into place like magic (Magic, aka 13 years of building it to this point!)
4. How long have you known the team at Voice-Care?
I first spoke to Philip Jarrett in 2022, so nearly 2 years ago now. It’s been exciting to see the company grow (I’m sure it was still an idea or early-stage initiative at that stage) and venture into different directions.
5. What is your opinion of the range of Voice-Care solutions?
Knowing more about what Voice-Care is doing outside of information in the public domain, I am genuinely truly excited about it. You don’t have to go far to hear about challenges and inefficiencies in the healthcare sector, so anyone who can demonstrably bring efficiencies into that world just has to be given the chance to succeed!
I was frankly blown away by the introduction of voice technology into personal care in the professional environment; it has so many possible applications and can only be beneficial.
It could go all the way from unique edge case implementations, up to NHS nurses relying on it on a daily basis to manage patients at hospitals, care homes and more.
I get to see inside new initiatives and businesses all the time, and this one has always been at the top of the list for my personal prediction of success.
6. How does Tappable fit into the Voice-Care Partner Ecosystem?
As I said above, we’re more than just a dev shop, and there’s no better way to prove that message than with the work we’re doing for Voice-Care. While the output is a technology platform and bespoke system, we act like the spider in the centre of the web, architecting solutions, liaising with other partners and glueing it all together.
We are currently the centrepiece to what will become a very complex system and are actively involved in the architecture and strategy of the whole thing, hopefully long into the future!
We talk to other partners, existing clients and potential new clients and have sort of adopted a product owner-type role, including on-the-ground installations and support. This is where we show our real worth actually, when we’re allowed to be more than just the ‘devs who do as they’re asked’!
7. What do you believe are Voice-Care’s specific USPs?
I feel that Voice-Care will succeed where others may not, because it combines an in-depth knowledge of how voice technology can change the way people work, combining years of experience delivering voice-directed systems with intimate access and connections to health and care in the UK.
That combination really sets you apart from the rest.
8. How do you believe Voice-Care has the potential to enable positive change within the healthcare sector, specifically in terms of patient safety and care?
Giving people on the ground access to a system that makes their day-to-day tasks easier in a high-pressured, high-paced environment are the ingredients for a successful business. Now consider those people to be healthcare workers, and the benefits span far and wide.
The net result of some of these initiatives is amplified again when you consider it’s based around patient care; it removes multiple instances of potential ‘human error’ and streamlines data between patient care and interested parties (doctors, families, even auditors, etc).
Removing paper, pressure, possibilities to get things wrong and speeding up data moving up the chain can only mean positive change - even revolutionary change.
I’m not even saying this because Voice-Care is one of our clients; I, and many of the people in Tappable also believe this.
9. And finally, what do you hope the future holds for Tappable’s relationship with Voice-Care?
Of course, selfishly, I want to pave the path for a long-standing relationship in which Tappable remains at the centre of the Voice-Care solutions. We have clients already in multi-year relationships with us and we very much hope Voice-Care will be the next.
Commercially, we’d love that to happen, but when you overlay that, this could honestly and genuinely help people too - we’re in it for the long haul! It has the bonus of the ‘feel good factor’ for everyone involved.